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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TENNIS
TYLER ROSTE/KANSAN
Senior Paulina Los stretches out to return the ball to the other side of the court on Feb. 1, 2013. The Jayhawks were victorious against the Denver Pioneers on winning 4-3.
Jayhawks ascend in the ranks, highest in 7 years
TORI RUBINSTEIN
sports@kansan.com
The red-hot Kansas tennis team is now sitting at No. 60 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, its highest ranking in seven years. It seems as though the Jayhawks just can't be stopped as they extended their undefeated streak, beating UT-Arlington and No. 66 Houston this past weekend.
Down in Texas, the Jayhawks took the doubles point for their fifth straight match before entering doubles play against Houston.
play against.
Things got tough for the girls when the Cougars won the first three singles matches for the day. Kansas rallied, however, and got wins from senior Claire Dreyer and junior Maria Belen Ludueña who tied the score up at 3-3.
There was less drama this time around for Kansas, who quickly stole the doubles point with an 8-1 victory from sophomore Maria Jose Cardona and junior Ludueña, as well as an 8-3 win from senior Los and freshman Morgan Barnhill.
After the hard-fought win in Houston, the girls traveled back to Lawrence to face the UT-Arlington Mavericks.
On court six, Tina Rupert of Houston retired from the match during the super tiebreaker to give senior Paulina Los and the Jayhawks a 4-3 victory.
The girls went on to dominate singles play, winning three straight matches to blank the Mavericks 4-0.
The Jayhawks will look to extend their streak this weekend when they face No. 39 Kentucky on Friday and
Eastern Kentucky is currently 4-3 and has yet to beat an ITA ranked team. The Colonels hope to end this streak against No. 60 Kansas this weekend.
Eastern Kentucky on Saturday.
the weekend.
Kentucky comes into Saturday's match with a 9-2 record, with losses to No. 1 Duke and No. 36 Indiana. The Wildcats will turn to No. 56 nationally-ranked sophomore Nadia Ravita to lead their team against an extremely hot Kansas team. This is the first time this season that the Jayhawks will go a whole weekend without home court advantage.
The next home match for Kansas takes place at the Jayhawk Tennis Center on Feb. 28 against No. 54 Wichita State. 28
Edited by Alec Weaver
Edmunds scores personal best, shines on Sochi ice
OLYMPICS
He gave the Archbishop Mitty High sophomore a few final words of encouragement and then sent her off to meet the world.
It was one jump. One double Axel performed in warm-ups Wednesday night by San Jose, Calif., teenager Polina Edmunds that calmed down everyone around her.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Coach David Glynn immediately relaxed at the Iceberg Skating Palace as the spotlight blared down.
Edmunds, 15, proved quickly she isn't too fragile for her sport's grandest stage, scoring a personal best 61.04 points in the women's short program to place seventh on the first day of one of the Olympics' centerpiece events.
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Edmunds said hello with a lively 2-minute routine that included three triple jumps and that double Axel that took a year to master when she was 10
The American team will enter Thursday night's free skate in position to medal, with current U.S. champion Gracie Gold of Chicago in fourth and Ashley Wagner of Virginia in sixth.
The Americans could not have been more pleased with the showing, but it probably won't be good enough to earn the country's first gold medal since 2002.
Crisp. Confident. Cool.
It seems the crown still belongs to the Queen Yuna Kim of South Korea. The airy performer won the short program with a score of 74.92 points in her attempt to become the third woman to win back-to-back Olympic titles. The others are legends Sonja Henie of Norway and Katarina Witt of Germany.
Kim, 23, heads into the long program ahead of a couple surprising names, however. Adelina Sotnikova of Russia is second with 74.64 points, followed by five-time European champion Carolina Kostner of Italy with 74.12 points.
The stunners: Russian sensation Yulia Lipnitskaya is fifth, and 2010 silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan is 16th after a complete collapse.
The breakdowns by such big stars underscore how formidable Edmunds performed when it mattered most.
"To see her so comfortable on Olympic ice shows her strength of character," said Glynn, who has coached Edmunds since she was 4.
Winning a medal in her first Olympics has become an uphill climb against skaters who simply are more sophisticated if not her technical equal.
Now Edmunds hopes to duplicate the effort Thursday night in the 4-minute free skate that is much more trying
It's all part of the growing process for a skater who is seen as America's promising future.
Lipnitskaya also has some growing to do. She entered the cauldron with hometown fans screaming her name just before she began. She said later it didn't bother her.
But it might have betrayed her icy veins. The 15-year-old who won the women's program of the new Olympic team event looked like a medal winner until falling on her final jump, a triple flip. The judges gave Lipitskaya 65.23 points, well below her personal best.
on the nerves.
"To see her so comfortable on Olympic ice shows her strength of character."
DAVID GLYNN Edmunds' coach
Gold had a solid, if not perfect, skate to earn 7.59 points more than Edmunds.
"This is about throwing it out there, that when you have a shaky landing on a triple Lutz,
you stick that triple toes;" Gold said.
Wagner showed for the second time in two weeks that American skating officials made the right decision putting her on the Olympic team after she finished fourth at the nationals.
The team's most veteran skater was buoyant after practically racing out to the center of the rink to begin her program.
"I've been way too tired, way too sweaty, way too exhausted and angry with training to not go out there and do it," Wagner said.
She made her international debut at the senior level wearing an aureolin-colored gown and a yellow ribbon in her pulled-back blond hair. Edmunds had the audience clapping from the start of her cha-cha medley that showcases her playfulness on the ice.
Edmunds wanted to do what she has done "a million times" skate her two programs cleanly
Once that Latin music began, she was "just Polina."
"I just hit the mode of dancing, and by the time I was getting ready for my Lutz it was pretty automatic," Edmunds said.
The audience, well aware her mother, Nina Edmunds, is Russian, immediately began clapping along.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Polina Edmunds of the USA performs in short program figure skating during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, on Wednesday.